Avoid withdrawal if you can. It won't completely ruin your job prospects, but it will sting. On the other hand, one failing grade in law school can (and probably will) ruin you, at least for your prospects right out of school.

ThreeRivers wrote:In law school.... Messed up a class / didn't turn in a big paper, professor seems to not be cooperating

Does it look bad to whom? If you mean employers, it probably depends upon the employer. If you mean the bar examiners, nah.

1 "w" would look bad for an employer? I figured 1 "w" wouldn't even warrant a question...

Its pretty bad. Considering most of the class will get a B (or B+), the fact you took a "W" means either: (a) compelling personal purpose, which you can corroborate with the school to support, or (b) major fuck up that woulda doomed you.

That said. Is a "W" better than an "F"--well shit, yes. If the prof is not cooperating you may be best taking the dubs.

ThreeRivers wrote:In law school.... Messed up a class / didn't turn in a big paper, professor seems to not be cooperating

Does it look bad to whom? If you mean employers, it probably depends upon the employer. If you mean the bar examiners, nah.

Talk to your dean or a third party who might be able to help work something out. Barring that, take the grade and have a really good story (lie) about your grandma dying, best friend getting cancer, contracting mono or something else so that you can explain it away. Wipe hands.

People in this thread seem to be wildly speculating. I'd imagine W is better than a C or worse. Way better than a F. And with the right bullshitting it's probably even better than a B/B- depending on your schools scale.

Just say you didn't want to take the class anymore and missed the drop date. That's not even lying.

And I doubt you'll get too many questions about it anyway. Someone might ask but you just have to have a confident, intelligent answer.

When firms ask stupid questions like why aren't you first instead of third, that doesn't mean that being third killed your chances already. They are just seeing what your answer is.

WHJTMG178 wrote:But what is a good answer for why you are number three instead of number one? I got a similar question (class rank wasn't quite as good, still top 5%) and struggled to come up with a good answer.

Who knows, it's such a stupid question, it's impossible to know what the person asking it wants to hear. I think a safe bet would be to describe a class where you didn't get an clean A/A+ and explain why you think you didn't get it.

An accurate answer would be "we don't all take the same tests, ranking us together is ridiculous and lacks statistical rigor. What was your GPA brah?"